There are many different known attempts at manufacturing cable harnesses automatically, which have hitherto been fabricated predominantly by hand.
In the presently promising pilot automatic cable harness fabrication systems, formboards of the type set forth in the characterizing part of claim 1 hereto and one or more industrial robots are utilized which route the wires between the individual connector housing cavities on the formboard with routing and/or contacting tools of various design. The "shape" of the cable harness is determined by the so-called routing aids which may be designed as guiding and/or bundling means.
The hitherto known proposals for the automatic production of cable harnesses are concerned with routing the wires, fastening (contacting) the wires in the connector housing cavities, respectively sheathing the individual subbranches of the cable harness. In this case, following assemblage, the cable harnesses are removed from the formboard by an industrial robot or a handling device. This is a relatively time consuming procedure as the industrial robot does not only have to change suited tools but also has to remove the individual subbranches of the cable harness singly from the routing aid.
In the older application P 38 27 010.7, therefore, to which the present application is a patent of addition, a solution is described permitting simple automatic removal of the assembled cable harness from the formboard together with the routing means, such as connector housing cavities, routing aids, etc., which, respectively guide, the wires while the cable harness is being assembled.
The solution described in the present application is particularly advantageous if the cable harnesses are fabricated as "individual pieces" or if the routing aids are to remain on the cable harnesses as assembly aids as in each instance the routing means will be removed together with the cable harness. This, however, is no problem in the individual fabrication of cable harnesses as the formboard has to be "loaded" anew anyway prior to the fabrication of the individual cable harnesses.